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Inclusion in an Archaeological Project:
Trouvadore Project. A Case Study
Nigel Sadler, Sands of Time Consultancy, 8A Third Avenue,
Walthamstow, London, E17 9QJ, England, UK
E-mail: nigel.sadler@sandsoftimeconsultancy.com
ABSTRACT________________________________________________________________
Is it the role of archaeologists to lead on community involvement? In 2000 the
Trouvadore Project was launched as a partnership. The archaeologists of Ships
of Discovery were to search for the shipwreck, film makers Windward Media
were to document the project and the Turks and Caicos National Museum was
to research the wrecking and the legacy of the survivors. With its developing
outreach programmes it was natural for the museum to take on the
responsibility of informing and involving the community in the project. This is
the story of community inclusion in the search for the slave ship Troubadour.________________________________________________________________
Resume: Le role des archeologues est-il d’attirer la participation de la
communaute ? Le projet Trouvadore a ete lance dans le cadre d’un
partenariat en 2000. Les archeologues de Ships of Discovery ont ete a la
recherche de l’epave, les cineastes de Windward Media ont documente le
projet tandis que le Musee national des ıles Turks et Caıques recherchait la
cause du naufrage et l’heritage des survivants. Grace a ses programmes de
sensibilisation, il etait naturel pour le musee d’assumer la responsabilite
d’information et d’implication de la communaute dans ce projet. Ceci est
l’histoire de l’integration communautaire dans la recherche du navired’esclaves Troubadour.________________________________________________________________
Resumen: ¿Es funcion de los arqueologos liderar la implicacion
comunitaria? En el 2000, el proyecto Trouvadore se inicio como una
asociacion. Los arqueologos de Ships of Discovery buscaban el pecio, los
cineastas Windward Media documentaron el proyecto y el Museo Nacional
de las Turcas y Caicos investigo el naufragio y el legado de los
supervivientes. Con sus programas de ayuda al desarrollo, era logico que el
museo asumiera la responsabilidad de informar e implicar a la comunidaden el proyecto. Esta es la historia de la inclusion de la comunidad en la
busqueda del barco de esclavos Troubadour._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
R E S E A R C
H
A R C H A E O L O
G I E S
V o l u m e 6
N u m b e r 3
D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 0
Ó 2010 World Archaeological Congress 431
Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress ( Ó 2010)
DOI 10.1007/s11759-010-9140-x
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KEY WORDS
Slave ship, Slavery, Turks and Caicos Islands, Community outreach_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Introduction
The transitory nature of the work of many archaeologists is often restrictedto short excavation seasons and short term contracts. This can mean that
whilst the archaeologists may have in depth knowledge of the archaeologi-
cal period being excavated, they in many incidents have no infinity with
the locality of the excavation. This is especially so for projects in small
island nations. Also, for many archaeologists their quest is knowledge, anddare one say the desire for academic recognition mainly through publica-
tions which in the past often meant there was little consideration on how
they would either include or inform the local community during and afterthe project.
However, is it the role of archaeologists to do everything in a project?
The term community or public archaeology implies that archaeologists
integrate the community, but it is not implicit that it is the archaeologistswho need to do this. Is it not more effective to work with organisations
that already has connections with the community and has outreach at the
core of its work? Therefore, a natural partner would be museums, which
have over the last few decades moved towards more community inclusion,implemented in a variety of ways to make museums more relevant to the
communities they serve (Pes 2008).One such project is the search for the wreck of the slave ship Trouba-
dour in the Turks and Caicos Islands. As the story of the wrecking of the
slave ship Troubadour has been recounted in other publications (Sadler2004b, 2008a, b) this article will show how the Turks and Caicos National
Museum, in conjunction with its archaeological partner Ships of Discovery,has incorporated and informed the local community of the wrecking and
inclusion of their ancestors into society whilst carrying out the project touncover the story of the survivors from Troubadour .
Turks and Caicos Islands and Its Slave Heritage
The Turks and Caicos Islands is a chain of over 40 islands at the south
eastern end of the Bahamian archipelago (Figure 1). The 2001 censusrecorded the population as 19,886, of which 53% were ‘‘Belongers’’, the
name the locals call themselves (Sadler 2006a). The country is developing
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at an extraordinary rate, with a population growth of around 10% a year,
mostly through immigration. This growth, linked to technological advance-
ments permitting easy access to the internet and satellite television, has put
pressure on maintaining a cultural identity for the locals; the youth arenow interested in rap music and not local ripsaw; young children in
Spongebob rather than traditional story telling with its African roots.
For countries going through such rapid cultural change it is essential
that organisations like museums and national trusts encourage the recogni-tion of the country’s heritage and provide ways in which it can be
recorded, preserved and the local population encouraged to participate in,
identify with and value (Clark 2006). Until recently little had been pub-lished on the Turks and Caicos Island’s history. The most extensive,
H. E. Sadler’s 1960s and 1970s series Turks Island Landfall, was combined
into a single publication in 1997 and became the main source for research-
ers (Sadler 1997). Since 1991 the Turks and Caicos National Museum hastaken on the mantle of being the leading historical research centre and
from 1997 has published its findings in the Museum’s quarterly newsletter‘‘Astrolabe’’ in the Times of the Islands Magazine, an international maga-
zine for the country.
One area that had not been given the importance it deserved was slave
heritage of the country. The country is made up of two banks of islands:
Figure 1. Map locating the Turks and Caicos Islands
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The Turks Islands and the Caicos Islands. Slavery had existed in the Turks
Islands from the days of the Bermudians using the Islands initially togather salt seasonally in the seventeenth century, and later settling there
permanently in the eighteenth century. The salt industry remained the
main user of enslaved labour in the Turks Islands until slavery was abol-ished in all British territories in 1834. The Caicos Islands had a different
history as some Loyalists who had fled from North America after the
American War of Independence were granted land in the Caicos Islands in
the late eighteenth century and set up cotton plantation. Originally success-ful, a combination of pest infestation, poor soils and a devastating hurri-
cane meant the cotton industry had all but collapsed by the 1820s andmany of the enslaved workers were transferred to the salt industry in the
Turks Islands.The Turks and Caicos Islands was on the transatlantic route that many
of the illegal Cuban slave ships took. The slave trade had been outlawed by
the British in 1807 and soon after set up navy patrols to intercept the ille-gal slavers in the Atlantic Ocean and free the Africans on board. On the
other hand, Spain had outlawed the slave trade in 1820 but did little to
prevent the trade, and in fact generally turned a blind eye to the shipment
of captured Africans as the Cuban economy was so reliant on the labourfor their sugar industry. The authorities in the British territories in the
Caribbean were vigilant and would do what they could to halt the trade.However, this was a difficult time and introducing freed Africans into a
society that still employed enslaved workers was challenging, made even
more so by the introduction of the Apprenticeship scheme following the
abolition of slavery in 1834 which allegedly aimed to teach the former
enslaved workers how to be free, but in reality it provided a transitionalperiod for the former slave owners to develop a new system of workforce.
This meant that during the 1820s and 1830s The Turks and Caicos
Islands was undergoing a major shift in its own working conditions anddid not really have the resources either to afford to take large numbers of
liberated Africans who had been settled in the Bahamas after being freed
from slave ships, nor to actively chase down slavers. In real terms their role
was to deal with situations of crisis forced upon them, to provide security to the Africans who landed on the shores of the Islands after the ship car-
rying them to Cuba had been wrecked. This was the fate of those on board
two slave ship wrecks, Esperenza in 1837 and Troubadour in 1841.Up until 2000 the only archaeological project on historical sites related
to slavery was in 1989 at Wades Green Plantation and the findingswere presented in academic publications where most of this informa-tion remained locked. The blame for this can not be laid solely on
the American archaeologists but also at local institutions such as
the National Trust and the National Museum who had done little to
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disseminate the information. Since 2000 the National Trust has pro-
moted the slave heritage by developing the ruins of the slave owners’houses at Wades Green on North Caicos, Haulover Plantation on Mid-
dle Caicos and Cheshire Hall on Providenciales as tourist attractions.
Unfortunately, at these sites there was little interpretation about the lifeof the enslaved.
In 2000 the Turks and Caicos National Museum became involved in the
UNESCO Slave Route Project and this acted as the impetus for the
Museum to prioritise research on slavery. The Museum uncovered new aspects of the slave history of the country and critically analysed the find-
ings of earlier archaeological and research work. It was the shortcomingsfrom this earlier work that inspired the Museum to be more proactive with
information dissemination to the public (Sadler 2004c). During thisresearch the Museum identified the importance of the wrecking of the slave
ship Troubadour and its ability to encapsulate the story of slavery in the
country through the positive account of the freedom of 192 Africans froman illegal slave ship that wrecked off East Caicos in 1841, and the assimila-
tion of 168 of them into the country, increasing the population by 7%.
This influx of first generation Africans had a major affect on the commu-
nity by reinforcing African traditions, bringing new work ethics as they had never worked under slavery, and by marrying into the population.
The story had initially been uncovered in 1993 by Museum founder,Grethe Seim and Dr Donald Keith of Ships of Discovery, when they found
George Judson Gibbs’ ‘‘letter book’’ held by the Smithsonian in which he
mentioned the wrecking of a slave ship in 1841 (Gibbs 1878:216). The
Museum and Ships of Discovery had other priorities and therefore uncov-
ering the full story was delayed. Occasionally a researcher was hired to visitthe National Archives in Britain1 but this provided limited information as
he had no knowledge of the history of the country and was only seeking
references of the shipwreck and not the context of how the incident fittedinto what was happening in the Turks and Caicos Islands. This early
research was not publicly accessible.
In 2000 the Trouvadore Project was launched as a partnership. It was
clear that a multi disciplinary approach would be needed to uncover the fullstory of the Troubadour wrecking. It would need the skills of historical
researchers, archivists, oral historians, museum professionals, archaeologists
and public relations specialist. The Turks and Caicos National Museum wasbest placed to apply for the archaeological licences, would be central to the
research especially in positioning the shipwreck story into a more generalhistorical context, would provide the laboratories, storage and potentially exhibition space for the objects discovered and with its developing outreach
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programmes would be the medium for dissemination of information to
the local community. There was also the added benefit that the MuseumDirector was a qualified archaeologist with 4 years field experience before
retraining in museum management. This meant that the Museum had an
insight not only into its role as a museum but also the needs of the archaeol-ogists. The other partners were the American archaeologists of Ships of Dis-
covery, who were to search for the wreck, and the documentary makers
Windward Media, who were to record the project. There was also an infor-
mal fourth partner; David Bowen, the Director of Culture. In 2002 whilstemployed by the Tourist Board, Bowen become involved in the project fol-
lowing a meeting with the Museum Director who casually mentioned theresearch project. After listening intently he explained his family’s oral history
included an ancestor who arrived on a slave ship that wrecked in the coun-try. As he could identify elements of his family’s traditions in the Trouba-dour story, he understood the importance of the project and became an
essential local team member (Figure 2).The initial decision that faced the team was the name of the project. In
the research work that had already been carried out the ship had appeared
under many spellings including Troubador , Troubadour , Troubadaur and
Trouvadore in the original 1840s papers and Trovalore in a 1984 list of slave ships wrecked in the Bahamas Archipelago (Dalleo 1984). As the first
document uncovered in the National Archives in Britain had called theship Trouvadore it was decided that name would be used, so it became
Figure 2. David Bowen Director of the Department of Culture, talking to local bush
doctor Alton Higgs, during a field trip to gather information from residents on Mid-
dle Caicos
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the Trouvadore Project. With hindsight though the research has shown the
ship was probably called Troubadour , French for wandering minstrel andTrouvadore was just the anglicised version of that name. With the project
not using the real name of the ship this may lead to confusion in the
future.The first contact that provided quantifiable returns followed a normal
historical query made by Logwood Development Company to the Museum.
They were impressed by the response and in return offered their helicopter
to the Museum for a half day (Sadler 2003a). The Museum used it for anaerial survey to provide an insight into what an archaeological project
would entail off East Caicos. Wooden shipwrecks would not be visiblefrom the air but the helicopter allowed the team to identify potential
mooring sites for the research vessel, provided a greater view of the topog-raphy of the reef to give clues about the wrecking and gave the opportu-
nity to take photographs to show potential funders what the team would
face in the field.For the 2004 field season the archaeologists at Ships of Discovery had
hoped to secure funding from the usual granting agencies in the USA, but
this proved harder than expected. The Museum became involved in fund-
raising and the most effective contact they had was with Jackie Mulligan,Public Relations Manager at the Tourist Board. Mulligan suggested the
project approach the hotels, the Turks and Caicos Hotel and TourismAssociation and the Tourist Board. This non traditional avenue for funding
was not one the Museum or the archaeologists would have taken but Mul-
ligan saw the tourism potential of the international attention that the pro-
ject could bring. Utilising her contacts, and the Museum’s reputation, over
half of the required funds was gathered through these sources, especially through the Hartling Group, owners of the Sands and the Palms resorts,
who became the largest single sponsor. The hotel sponsorship was not just
financial as they supplied rooms for the team, facilities for press confer-ences at the end of the season and a farewell reception. Mulligan joined
the Trouvadore Project as press officer for the 2004 season and the excel-
lent international coverage she created made it easier to raise funds in
2006. The 2006 season saw the archaeologists raise half the funds throughNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Explo-
ration Program and half by the Museum mainly through the Turks and
Caicos Islands Conservation Fund and the Tourist Board. The Museumhad been aided by the fact they had provided the information on the Trou-
badour story and the 2004 season publicly and people wanted to be associ-ated with a successful project.
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The Search for the Wreck
In 1991 Ships of Discovery prepared guidelines for the issuing of archaeo-
logical licences in the Turks and Caicos Islands, but since then projectshad been approved without completing this application process. The
Museum submitted the applications for the 2004 survey and 2006 survey
and test excavation so they could be seen following good practice by com-
pleting the process for archaeological licences. When applying for the sur-
vey licence in 2004 the Museum made presentations to both the Chief Minister and the Governor so that the government felt some degree of
inclusion in the project. The Museum and its advisors often providereviews of potential new projects, and by following all guidelines during itsown projects it was hoped that this advice would gain more strength.
One condition of the licence was that a representative from the Depart-
ment of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR) would monitor theteam in the field. The project wanted to make sure it provided the oppor-
tunity for the DECR Belonger representative to feel that they were an inte-
gral part of the team, to fully participate in the project and be trained on
how DECR officers should monitor archaeological projects. The project
was fortunate that the representative assigned to the team in 2004 wantedto engage fully and learn more about the work, for which the team were
very willing not only teach him but also to incorporate him in every aspectof the project. His knowledge of the sea was very helpful as was his boat
handling skills and he promoted the work being undertaken within DECR,
and in the local community. It has been a good learning curve for the
archaeological team working with a local community member and it has
helped impress upon them the importance this project has within thecountry. The team was very lucky that this official was reappointed for the
2006 season.
The Museum, not the archaeologists, was responsible to guarantee thatthe terms of the licence were followed. This did cause some debates in the
field in 2004 as it was clear that the newly uncovered wooden wreck site
had recently been tampered with, probably by treasure hunters who hadbeen issued with a licence a few years earlier. At the wooden wreck a num-
ber 3, probably a water line marker, was found and it was recovered
because otherwise it might ‘‘disappear’’, and this action was detailed in thefinal reports (Keith and Sadler 2005). The Museum had already agreed
with the DECR that if anything found was at risk of theft then the
Museum would recover it, but only with the approval of their official whowas on board. However, the archaeologists wanted to recover some timberwhich might be used for radio carbon dating and tree identification, but
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the Museum felt this was outside the licence, where the terms were ‘look
but don’t touch’, and the verbal agreement with DECR.The fieldwork was off the deserted East Caicos and requests by locals to
join the team had to be rejected due to limited accommodation on the live
aboard dive boat, the limited resources and the team having to make dan-gerous crossings each day over the reef (Figure 3). Requests by some peo-
ple to bring their own boats to visit the team were also rejected as the
fieldwork was only for 2 weeks and time could not be spared. As the num-
ber of archaeologists was limited by the number of berths on the boat, theship’s crew became additional team members as boat handlers and field
team members. It is hoped that as these young dive masters move to othercompanies their education on how to read and safeguard shipwrecks makes
them advocates for protecting wrecks.In the 2004 field season tow boarders were used to locate wrecks in the
survey area to the north of East Caicos. Several wrecks were identified and
divers were sent down to map and photograph these wrecks. It was duringthe 2004 season that a ballast mound and a few wooden timbers could be
seen at a depth of around 15 ft, in the area the team expected the wreck to
be. In 2006 the project re-surveyed the area using electromagnetic equip-
ment and extended the survey area. This located no new wrecks in the2004 survey area and showed how effective tow boarding had been. It did
indicate that the most likely wreck site for Troubadour was larger in areawith buried metal signals extending for some distance. Some of these ‘hits’
were excavated and found to be metal fittings from a wooden ship, and
several test pits in the area around the ballast mound located substantial
Figure 3. The remote location off East Caicos where Troubadour wrecked
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timber remains from the hull of a ship, with an estimated length of about
120 ft. Unfortunately, the 2004 and 2006 seasons uncovered no diagnosticfinds but the archaeologists felt confident that this was the Troubadour because further research in the archives could not identify any other woo-
den ship wrecking in this area.2
To maintain public interest during the fieldwork a daily diary was
included on the website, not an easy task as the only means of updating it
was via temperamental satellite phones. The diary provided a challenge in
meeting the demands for public information and for safeguarding potentialwreck sites that were found. It was known that the local television and
radio were monitoring the website and the team did not want any majorfinds announced to the world in this manner but through press confer-
ences at the end of each field season. For example, in 2004, the announce-ment of the discovery of a wooden wreck was delayed for 2 days so that
the team could be sure of their facts about what had been found.
For the 2004 and 2006 seasons there was no secrecy about what hadbeen found. The Museum had been concerned in the past that previous
licence holders would not reveal the location of their finds, even though it
was required in the terms of the licence. They often claimed supplying the
data to the government and other agencies such as the Museum, wouldput the sites at risk. The Museum argued that as all wrecks in the Turks
and Caicos waters are the responsibility of the government they needed theinformation to help safeguard them. The project made sure that during the
2004 and 2006 seasons all man made items found were recorded and their
reference points included in the reports supplied to the government (Keith
and Sadler 2005). This did not mean the project was not concerned, but
the principal behind the project was that the work was being carried out toincrease the knowledge of the country and therefore needed to present this
information to the government agencies and the community.
Not everything ran smoothly. As part of the deal with the sponsors in2004 their logos were included on the official team shirt which would be a
main part of the promotion of the project, and was a visual indication of
the support from within the country the project had. All project partners
agreed to the shirt and in conjunction with Windward Media, the shirtswere designed to be tan in colour so they would appear better on film.
Unfortunately, when the research ship set sail in 2004 the project team
were notified that the tan shirts were no longer acceptable as potential pur-chasers of the documentary felt that sponsors’ logos should not be visible.
The archaeologists had clearly been informed in advance and presentedeach team member with a blue shirt with the simple logo of the words‘‘Trouvadore Project’’. This was the first real divide in the project and led
from miscommunication. The Museum was not happy that it had not
been notified in advance of this late change and it was only through extra
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promotional work that prevented this development from upsetting the
sponsors.The issue over the tan shirt was unfortunate. The Museum staff contin-
ued to wear the 2004 project shirt for events and whilst travelling in the
Turks and Caicos Islands. It was common for members of the public toapproach the Museum Director when wearing the shirt to ask for the latest
updates and information about the project. The Director also wore the
shirt when travelling to, and whilst presenting papers at, international con-
ferences. On one such trip whilst passing through Miami International Air-port members of the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board saw the Director
wearing the shirt and they commented on how this was promoting notonly the project but also the Turks and Caicos Islands—justifying their
sponsorship in 2004 and 2006.
Promotion and Presentations
The data collected by the Museum for the UNESCO Slave Route Project,
including the Troubadour story, was published in the booklet ‘‘Slavery in
the Turks and Caicos Islands’’ (Sadler 2004c) and the ‘‘Finding our RootsStudy Guide’’ (Sadler 2004a), the latter being distributed to every second-
ary school child in the country. The Trouvadore Project was heavily pro-moted in the country as the Museum had at the heart of its work the
desire to keep the public informed of the latest developments. This started
off with two articles in the Museum newsletter putting the story into its
historical context (Sadler 2003b, 2004b), updates on the field seasons in
the Museum newsletter (Mulligan 2004a; Sadler 2006b) and a community magazine (Mulligan 2004b) and the tourist magazine given to all passen-
gers on American Airlines flights from Miami to Turks and Caicos (Sadler
2007). The project also gained international coverage through involvingTim Ecott, a British journalist, in the 2004 season (Ecott 2004, 2005), and
the development of the website www.slaveshiptrouvadore.com, by the
Museum in 2003. Other organisations have also used the research made
available to create small exhibition panels on Troubadour such as those atthe National Trust’s Visitor Centre in Middle Caicos, the Department of
Environment and Coastal Resources’ National Exhibition Centre in Provi-
denciales and at the Grand Turk lighthouse site developed for the cruiseship audience.
Through its publications, presentations, radio and television appearancesthe Museum has also made itself accessible and by providing the materialit has opened itself up to receive comments about its work (Figure 4). The
feedback has been extensive and has led to some new research avenues in
connection to the project, both archival and archaeological. It has also
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allowed public debate on whether research on slave heritage should be
undertaken, with views ranging from those who believe that this type of history should be left in the past to those who believe an understanding of the past is essential to identify with their roots.
There was also the personal approach of making presentations to locals,
residents and tourists in the Turks and Caicos Islands. One of the most
uplifting moments and justification for the work being undertaken cameduring a presentation to some of the staff and guests at The Sands Resort
in 2004. As a condition of the sponsorship from the Hartling Group theproject was to help educate the hotel staff who had been unable to answer
the simplest questions about their heritage when asked by guests. Hotelstaff members were soon enthralled as they were drawn into the story
about how these survivors were their ancestors. How this story was their heritage. At the end of the presentation a staff member publicly thankedthe presenter as this was the first time anybody had tried to inform her
about her roots, her family’s links to the past and how it fitted into the
history of the country. The staff member’s comments about only beingtaught Jamaican history whilst at school clearly illustrated the issues that in
the past the country’s education system concentrated on Caribbean history
and not local history, mainly because there was little information available.This is now being rectified by a combination of the Trouvadore Project,the Museum’s research and publications, the recently introduced Commu-
nity College local studies course and the text book for students published
in 2009, which does include a section on Troubadour (Mills 2009).
Figure 4. Project members during a live questions and answers session on local
radio
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The presentations given at the Museum following the 2006 season bene-
fited from including a tour of the laboratories to show the excavated itemsin their initial stage of conservation. The public were not only interested in
what the objects were, but more importantly what the process would be to
get these items ready for display at the Museum. Officials from DECR werethe first to see the items as they had been immediately invited to visit the
Museum on the return of the team. Over a period of several months
school groups that visited as well as passengers from cruise ships were also
allowed to view the items during special tours.The project did not forget its obligations for presenting the data to its
peers. International conferences are the main medium where archaeologistshave traditionally shared recent findings. The Trouvadore Project was no
different and continued this tradition, but only as one strand of a broadermeans for information dissemination. Papers have been presented at the
Museums of the Caribbean’s annual general meetings in 2001 (Turks and
Caicos Islands) and 2002 (Cuba), World Archaeological Congress (WAC)2003 in Washington, USA, International Council of Museums conference
2004 in Seoul, Theoretical Archaeology Group conference 2005 in Sheffield,
UK, a whole session at the Society for Historical Archaeologists conference
2007 in Williamsburg, USA and at the WAC Inter-Congress 2007 inJamaica.
Conclusion
Archaeologists can often work with sensitive subject matters and slave heri-
tage sites falls within this realm. It is in these areas that archaeologists haveto be aware to the needs of the local community as well as the local issues
with this past heritage. Archaeologists have to remember that their work is
not only to uncover the past for their peers but also to be there for thegreater public meaning. Concerns had been voiced within the project that
information was being released in the popular media first rather than
through academic media. However, hindsight has shown that there has
been no detrimental effect from this approach as the information has beenequally distributed through many mediums.
The Trouvadore Project is a good case study for community involve-
ment in a small island nation but it is not claiming to be perfect. Much of what happened between 2000 and 2007 was positive but it showed the will-
ingness of team members to engage with the community varied greatly.Any successful project is also down to the interest of the local populationand their desire for involvement. In this case, the expectations of the public
were pretty low at the beginning so it was easy to count even the smallest
steps as a success. At the start the Museum had a more paternalistic
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approach as they felt the population needed to know the story of the survi-
vors of the shipwreck. Up until this project most of the community hadno real involvement with the Museum, or had any particular view on how
the Museum or the archaeologists should operate to benefit the commu-
nity.As the project developed the public began to request information and
lectures from the Museum. The project would have benefited from com-
munity involvement at a practical level but due to the location and nature
of the archaeological work this was not a reality. If further work leads toan excavation on the wooden wreck the objects would be conserved in the
Museum laboratory rather than sending the material overseas, allowingthe locals to watch the process and hopefully get involved as volunteers in
the post excavation work. As the Museum moves forward the lessons learntthroughout the Trouvadore Project will be used not only by the Museum
and the archaeologists but also as a benchmark of what the government
and population should expect from future archaeological work in thecountry. More importantly it is hoped that the project gives the commu-
nity confidence to ask questions of the archaeologists and researchers and
of any future projects, for it is theirs and their ancestors’ history that is
usually being uncovered.
Acknowledgments
The 2004 and 2006 seasons were only possible through the financial sup-
port of Hartling Group (Developers of Sands at Grace Bay and the Palms),
Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board, Royal West Indies Resort, Turksand Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association, Ocean Club Resort, Friends of
the Turks and Caicos National Museum, NOAA Ocean Exploration Pro-
gram, Turks and Caicos Islands Conservation Fund, Teddy Foundation,Dayton Foundation and San Francisco Foundation.
Notes
1. Much of the original material used to uncover Troubadour story can be
found in the National Archives, Kew, London under Colonial Office Records
(CO 23/105, CO23/109, CO23/113) and Customs (Cust34/228).
2. Following the 2008 field season the archaeologists publicly stated that they had found the wreck of Troubadour.
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